


Human and Prone to Failure

by MountainMew



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 02:11:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7599361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountainMew/pseuds/MountainMew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Know my name and all my hideous mistakes</p><p>(I rejoice)<br/>
(I rejoice)<br/>
(I rejoice) </p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 100% Self indulgent Valkyrie fic.  
> 50% First Person (Shuu) and 50% Third Person (Still mostly Shuu focused)  
> Vaguely biblical themed, vaguely DOD inspired, with no shipping really although I indulged a bit.
> 
> I have weird feelings for this fic.... It's a lot of weird little short fics mashed into one. I wonder if it sounds alright? I like every single one a lot. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I enjoyed writing them!
> 
> oh yeah one more thing imparchable isnt a word which pisses me of bc parch is a word parchable isnt imparchable isnt what a disaster i used it anyway but i was so pissed im putting it in the notes it means nothing 
> 
> That's all, please enjoy! God bless.

  Everything hurts.  
  And Shuu hates agreeing with the devil, that “pain,” could be “pleasure,” but even this far gone it’s easy for even God himself to see. Itsuki Shuu is in love with him. Humans are difficult creatures, certainly, but Nito is far beyond a person. He is art. He is an angel. He’s a precious doll only Shuu can tamper with, tune to his very soul. Until Nito can breath on his own, walk on his own, and love only he who created him in his vision.  
  That so much power can be allotted to one person...  
  Without a doubt, Shuu can reform him. Without a doubt, Shuu can give his empty husk life like no other. Without a doubt, in good time, the two can dance this ballroom’s dance as one.  
  How futile. He can stretch out his forsaken hands all day long yet never reach that great height the Lord’s promised land. Without realizing, those marionette strings slipped right through his fingers, replaced by the apple that sets men free. With good intentions, without even realizing, he, too, had fallen like lightning from heaven, and his precious thing has dusted up, muffled beyond repair.  
  Everything hurts.  
  But even he who is only but hanging by his legs, strangled in the strings, clings to that essence of life to give him strength. He has something precious only humans can hold dear, he has time.  
  Without a doubt, Shuu can reform him. Without a doubt, Shuu can give his empty husk life like no other.  
  It is a promise to God himself, he thinks. This time, there will be no mistakes. At this very gate leading to the Academy, to Heaven and to Hell, he reads his vows.  
   
  “Me~ntor!”  
  Mika sighs, his whining grating Shuu’s ears. Resting his head into his palms, elbows on the table, he does his best to think up some kind of conversation that would hold Shuu’s interest.  
  “Mika, dear, it is improper to sit slouching like that. Please, show a little more respect at home.”  
  That voice...  
  “Yeah, yeah. Muh bad, Madonee.” He says, straightening up. “How’s mentor doin’? I’m starved, y’know? Can we eat?”  
  There’s a faint laugh, the oddest combination of two voices. Like God and the Devil’s radio intermission.  
  “Shuu isn’t feeling well, after all. But I suppose it can’t be helped you can’t make food yourself, can you?”  
  Again...  
  _Am I good for anything at all, other than being a nuisance?_ Mika thought, once, their loss had affected him the most. That his valiant mentor could never let something so petty ruin his perfection, but a scratch on the face is a scratch none-the-less, it seems. This would make the third night in a row Shuu had refused to eat, his mentor truly betrays all reason, doesn’t he?  
  And this doll, as well. Has mentor always held that one so closely? He doesn’t really remember.  
  “I’ll only make food if mentor promises to eat it, too, alright?”  
  This laugh sounds more like Shuu’s than the doll’s, perhaps he isn’t fully accustomed to such ventriloquism.  
  “That would defeat the purpose, my dear. I told you, Shuu isn’t feeling well. Don’t make me repeat myself.”  
  She’s scary, like a mother, in that way. Like Shuu. So Mika nods and stuffs his own face in front of his mentor, hoping he, too, would find his appetite. How little a child can understand, between a parent’s universe of never ending problems.  
  
  The Dragon falls from his grace, an empty husk of a shell slithered out on an empty, and ever too large bed. He watches his reflection through the corner of his eyes, against the shine of a rotten apple salivating temptation. Beautiful. _Beautiful._  
  All things come to those who wait.  
  
  Perhaps, even before they met, his mentor had watched over every moment of his conception. That even this enigma of a child, frightening in his duality yet brimming as the light in even the darkest of nights, Shuu sees only the beauty in God’s work that belongs only to He. It’s devastating, heartbreaking, that this wondrous creation goes all but unnoticed in this ill-appreciative world. And what God refuses to uphold, the Devil takes kinder to.  
  Mika felt this same disdain for the beauty yet tuned in this boy he knows as Narukami Arashi.  
  He didn’t _really_ know Arashi back then, and even now the person before him is less a person than an enigma to his eyes. He struts the confidence of a demon with the face of an angel. that scares the earnest angel just a little bit. Mika doesn’t understand why the brutality of a movie has never made him jump quite a much as a day with Arashi, and yet...  
  Honey and milk drizzle down his spine in equal quantities, Mika longs for just a simple taste. He feels the temptation of Eve in the body of a man, the kind God loves only to despise. Arashi is the comforting lap for his head to rest upon, the lullaby of the most dignified flower in a garden of roses.  
  “You’re so concerned about the little things, Mika.” Arashi speaks boldly, everything they say with both arrogance and the experience to back such things. “Flowers in the field grow without a single care in the world, y’know? Don’t you think they’re beautiful, without any effort at all?”  
  “Y-yeah, they are.” Mika nudges on of the buds in the bushes. He can feel his conscious bleeding over his fingertips.  
  “You’re just like a rose.”  
  He spoke as though shame were the farthest word from his mind. So quickly his words collide into Mika’s brain, with such a passionate genuinity, Mika realizes the image in his mirror is the last concern that should be on his mind. Yet, when he touches one eye, the left one in particular...  
  “You don’t trust me, do you?” Arashi pulls the boy’s bangs back, gently caressing his head, “That’s fine, then I’ll just stop trusting you back!” They tease.  
  That’s enough to pull a smile on Mika’s face. He’s still a far cry away from the answers he seeks of this world, but a friend like a demon or angel might be enough for today to sooth the pain. He listens only to Arashi’s voice, when he sees Heaven in his dreams.  
   
   
  That girl, too, devours dreams. It seems for all she lacks she makes up for them through mere diligence. She tries so hard for nothing at all in return, though I hate to admit perchance it is true we share a common interest at heart.  
  And for all her vile spit, it’s truth that her hands are gentle when she sews. Moreso than I’d expect of one under the wing of that barbarian of a friend of mine. Though, I can’t for the life of me comprehend the purpose of wearing out one’s arms with heavy weights as she does.  
  Such an enigma, that vile woman is.  
  She’s a little demon, that one, I would know. Always taking things that don’t belong to her and making them wholly her own, I’m not sure whether to be impressed or annoyed. She has him, too, doesn’t she?  
  She has the whole world cutting off her circulation and yet, could it be we both are lacking that which we both truly desire?  
  That girl, always so coy, refuses to tell me anymore. All the while, she’s always stealing information if not from me from that foolish Kagehira who would give anything away. He’s trying, I know he is, and yet he can never control those childish feelings of his. I only wish I could tune him more properly as I used to.  
  Yet somehow, she who’s seen the world crumble and fail in God’s name still believes in children like Kagehira, those who’ve yet to see just how cruel the world can be. Children like his, his Ra*bits, so blissfully unaware of the tragedy at their feet, how is it they can get that Nito to parade around with such a smile on his face?   A smile I’ve never been allowed to see.  
  What a bother, I’ve already grown so tired of this. Yet, regardless of what I say to her she’ll never take the hint and leave. So I hold her hands through the steps, weaving the needle properly until she, too, can see.  
   
  
  He was beautiful.  
  He was a family. He was a home. He was the feeling of true love. He was the essence of life itself.  
  It is because he simply was and never is that I know for certain I could never be satisfied. But I try none-the-less, try to obtain what God locks behind closed gates simply because it is locked away from me. This is a treasure I have to salvage, before he, too, drowns in the abyss of an oncoming hell.  
  This place was hell from the start.  
  
  Even that which is torn, broken and easily forgotten can be recreated anew beneath hardworking fingertips. He is diligent in his work, meticulous, so that even all of life’s failures may be sewn into works of art.  
  He breaths into his clothes until even the dead might gain life, a dreadful conception. He doesn’t really want to see the inanimate breath, unless it is from Him.  
  God lays awake deep into the night, holding his hand through every step, and God is painful, telling him all the words he’d rather not hear.  
  He sighs, he leans into his chair and he sighs at what he can not be.  
  There will be paradise soon enough.  
  
  “Trust in me,” He says, “I will tune you until you are whole, a doll with a beating heart.” He boasts.  
  The boy before him is incapable of responding, silent as a lamb.  
  There is not blessing greater than that of his hand, outstretched only for that which is perfect. Trust in he, and he shall set you free, that’s the perception has grown like a forest in his mind. If he could only become even greater than God, become the salvation of this pitiful little school, that he could be the last great Sovereign of Yumenosaki, would his life be worth anything more than death itself.  
  “Has a demon caught your tongue? Come now, speak up.”  
  The small boy before him only cocks his head, he smiles just slightly, just slightly enough for Shuu to take not of how lovely it truly were. It’s a rare blessing, an empty, lifeless little smile. Even over laughter, the heart does ache, and at the end of this youthful light they call joy, may only lie grief. Maybe. Or, just maybe...  
  “Now, I don’t believe in destiny,” He declares, “However...”  
  “However, I believe this meeting may be something along the lines of ‘Divine Intervention.’ That is why I must ask you to follow me, and become the perfect idol I’ve already envisioned you to be at my side. What do you say?”  
  The boy really, genuinely laughs. This weirdo hasn’t even asked his name, yet he’s demanding so much weight on his itty, bitty shoulders. What kind of stranger could say something so absurd without a hint of shame? That he knows his future better than him, better than God, whatever it were, he’s nothing but an idiot, isn’t he?  
  Despite that...  
  “Okay.”  
  The boy says, meek and nearly inaudible that if Shuu’s ears were not so sharp he may have missed it. But Shuu heard it. Shuu heard the voice of seven angels singing, the sound of God’s blessings he deserves not. The sounds of youth, of friendship, of hope in a world so devoid of anything close.  
  Shuu takes the boys hand, and hopes he never has to let go.  
  “Good, I expected nothing less of someone so refined. Now, tell me, what is it? Your name?”  
   
  
  “Who is it you prefer?”  
  Her voice is sharp, like snake’s forked tongue. She reads the air with the simple opening of her mouth, demands attention with only one or two words at best. Mika prefers her to most, if only for wearing a skirt.  
  “Dunno what ya mean.”  
  She laughs, in a way that sends shivers down Mika’s spine. She’s cuter than a kitten yet as frightening as the zombies in his favorite horror films, she’s his perfect fit.  
  “Ra*bits and Valkyrie, they’re very different don’t you agree? Like day and night, one might say. Isn’t that a pretty thing?”  
  He listens to the soft slither of the fabric she sews. Up, and down, up and down, it’s like a little lullaby to his mind. His mentor, as well, had a tendency to sew before bed, waiting until Mika falls asleep before putting his work to rest.  
  “I’ve already chosen then, haven’t I?”  
  “Yes, I know. But I wonder if that was the best decision, in the end?”  
  She sighs, putting her craft on her lap in discontent. It’s nothing like she’d imagined it’d be, a real pathetic show of her talent. Yet, we all make mistakes, do we not? That’s their blessing, as humans.  
  “You’re pretty fickle, after all. Well, if you need a place to stay in the end, my house is always open. You wouldn’t be the first boy we’ve adopted.”  
  Mika hates to think about it, about his future. What is his mentor going to do with him if their unit is only two? Without the sun does the moon yet have reason to shine? There’s not even reason to believe Ra*bits will remain without their mentor, is there?  
  “Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.”  
  
  
  “Has a demon caught your tongue,” He asks, “Is that why you can’t speak up?”  
  There’s nothing more beautiful in the world of human’s than a failure. That Kagehira, always hiding behind his mentor like a small dog, barking out meaningless remarks endlessly at some nonexistent threat.  
  In the same sense, it’s truly an enigma to the man how easily his student sinks into the lap of a women. He tries so hard to come off as intimidating, that he alone will protect that precious Valkyrie, yet he can’t even so much as speak to a man? For this boy, so quick to shout “Traitor!” when will he learn how deceitful women are prone to be?  
  “Nn~n~ Anzuuu~”  
  They’re such a nuisance, his children. How is he supposed to focus with such a ruckus about him. And that damn foolish Kagehira, sprawled out like a neglected cat, isn’t this the thing he fears most? He should be grateful that pitiful producer has no desire to harm him in his most vulnerable state. She’s talented at that, scratching his ears, spoiling the puppeteer's creation back to square one.  
  Mika turns on his side, snuggling up to the girls lap. Maybe she’s said that, too, that Mika were her precious little kitten.  
  “Can I keep him?” She says quietly, that little cheating smile over her face.  
  Perhaps Mika expects Shuu to dispose of him just like that, to nod his head and sell off his soul. But he doesn’t. He stays dreadfully quiet, not moving an inch except for his hands to sew. He can’t say a word, not until his craft is finished.  
  “Kagehira is my responsibility, not yours. You do enjoy taking on unnecessary responsibilities, too, don’t you?”  
  She nods, laughing, stroking Mika’s hair gently. “Oh no, you caught me!”  
  “But,” She says absentmindedly, “This one’s cute.”  
  “Nnuh~ Ya think if ya act all sweet you’ll be able to.... Ahh, hey, wait, don’t leave!” He’s capricious as a toddler, without any sense for other people. And the girl is his entire opposite; perhaps it is the fault of having a younger brother she tames rotten children so easily.  
  Not that Kagehira was rotten. He was perfect from the start.  
  
  It’s raining. It’s been raining a very long time. One might even call this divine punishment.  
  I stopped breathing long ago. My body’s stopped responding to the sensation entirely, of electromagnetic waves and messages from the brain. What would that worthless piece of me know in the first place?  
  It’s been so long, has it not? How many days are passing me by, blending together into an indistinguishable amalgam of empty thoughts and empty people? Even this, even that, nothing ever comes out quite right these days, not breakfast, lunch, nor dinner; those meals left cold on the table, what’s the purpose of food that goes to rot?  
  What is this, God, that you would have me thinking left when you say go right? If you were so holy, so great in everything that you are unarguably sacred and yet you can not even calm the soul of a single man? If it were I that were man at all...  
  This rain will never give me peace of mind I seek, and yet I can not move my legs to flee outside. This is how it should be, a boat drifting softly away from the nightmare we both rest in, powerless in the light of judgement. I can feel the water wrapping it’s hands around my neck, telling me to be at ease, until I can not breath. I haven’t breathed in so long.  
  “Mentor.”  
  
  
  Revenge is bittersweet, at best.  
  Though winter has come to encase the two both, the highest form of art hanging in a museum, Shuu feels himself growing tired of holding so tightly to these insatiable desires of love and hate. Kagehira Mika is his magnum opus, both his fan and his apprentice, and for that he must protect him with his life, so that he may lay Shuu to rest in due time.  
  The two turn in the dance room, slowly waltzing forward. Kagehira is clumsy, endearingly so when his little feet step over Shuu’s. How quickly the boy goes from elegance to slouching should really be more frustrating than it is, but Shuu simply moves on without him, deeply lost in his own thoughts he stares flatly into Kagehira’s face until the boy can no longer stand it.  
  “Mentor, slow down. I’m a big dummy so ya gotta help me out a little here?”  
  They’ve hardly even started in their practice, yet his child’s already full of complaints. Honestly, how pitiful his idol can’t even dance, nor sing, nor do anything more than look rather pretty occasionally. He is both a failure and his greatest weapon against God.  
  Even so, Valkyrie certainly has fallen, haven’t they?  
  
  He is screaming.  
  This man, so divine in everything that he’s accomplished, curses God’s name for the very first time in his life. His body aches, falling so far from his rightful place at the Lord’s side and for what he’s never certain. For who is it that’s stolen his place, a man who is no way deserves God’s grace and yet he purrs like a spoiled cat at that throne just below Him.  
  He’s screaming. Crying. Trying so desperately to remain collected and yet, he, too must admit once in his life that he is human, and God has made humans to fail.  
  
  Tenshouin Eichi, who’s cursed the Lord three or four times more than Itsuki Shuu ever has, has had the most of God’s graces. He is more than an Emperor, more than man itself, like an Angel who’s descended from Heaven to bring God’s revelation.  
  For that, it is impossible to hate him.  
  Shuu has tried very hard in his time to despise him. To try to tear the man Tenshouin down, but each great progress leads only to the greater demise of Valkyrie, his dearest passion.  
  Shuu no longer holds onto hate, only to Kagehira.  
  The two turn once more, Kagehira dragging his feet enough to scuff the beautiful floor. He does nothing but disappoint Shuu, in so many new ways Shuu’s losing track of them all.  
  “Kagehira.”  
  His voice is flat, devoid of any emotions.  
  “M... Mentor?”  
  The two stop their dance, Shuu straightens the boy out before looking him in the eyes once more to speak. _Actually, before that,_ he moves the boys bangs from his face.  
  “If you feel so passionately that this place is the only place you may ever belong, pray tell to me why it is you feel you can’t even stand up straight for a dance? Let go of me.”  
  And Kagehira does, he sets his hands to his sides immediately, like a soldier being scolded.  
  “W-well, s’just that when you’re starin’ like that I know for sure you’re thinkin’ bout stuff that don’t matter, n’all. Nn... Honest, Mentor, ya get so caught up in you’re head, you’re gonna miss the world around ya, don’t ya think?”  
  How undecidedly pointed of his doll to say.  
  “Mentor?”  
  He isn’t sure how to respond, so Kagehira takes the cue to continue.   “It’s snowin’, Mentor.”  
  So it is. He hadn’t much noticed the changing in seasons, not when his world is always burning in his presence. The ground is dry, air blisteringly cold, wind raging against this Earth and the trees have let go of their leaves. He feels a great desire to hibernate, to hide far away from this world.  
  It’s so cold. So very, very cold, in Hell.  
  
  “Take care of yourself,” She says.  
  Mika doesn't understand what it is that's drawn so many to him. Were it his eyes, that can see no evil, not even in the Devil himself? Those eyes, grown and trained by his mentor to see no mistakes, to never behold anything worthless in the world, to be strong in a world with nothing much to live for. Somehow, it is that imparchable purity has gotten him people he vaguely manages to brand as friends over traitors.  
  Just vaguely.  
  Still, with the two of them, who have held his hands since they've met and made him whole without even trying at all, their smiles that create butterflies in his chest and have his heart fly away. If Shuu were the defining force to ground Mika to this world, Arashi and Anzu had been the balloons dragging him away, the wind taking them to far off places and happier days.  
  Mika feels at peace with them. Even in this cold, being forgotten beneath blisters and snow, if it's in their arms, wrapped in their warmth, then Mika thinks it might not be so bad. Laughing, making snow angels and building forts to hide away in, Mika wishes these days never had to pass away.  
  "Happy birthday," They say.  
  That is the day, isn't it? Just before the birth of Christ, the greatest gift of giving, had God blessed the Earth with a boy who'd never know just how beautiful he were. Like roses in the field, frozen over and nearing their ends, Mika could see nothing but the ice surrounding his fingertips.  
  And he smiles, curses his own tears, because even with the coming of each dreadfully empty year, there’s people he has the luxury of calling his friends. He has so many friends, now, doesn’t he?  
  And two girls, three girls, four or five girls who’s hands are warm and craftsmanship is coming into competition with even that of his mentor’s. The sensation of equally returned love is overwhelming, but he takes this bone-crushing stoning as though it were nothing at all, but leaves in the wind.  
  
  I am awake. I am alive, today, I am lost and yet never found, I am like the Devil God despises and an Angel Heaven sent all the same.  
  I am grasping for straws, here. Grasping for the wall, the chairs, anything to keep my hold on this Earthly world I hate to love so dearly. The feeling overwhelms me, like blood and other such bile trickling down my chin. At the very least, I’d like to retain the beautiful behind this face and yet this devilish drizzle devours even hearts, even souls, even souls long gone to rest and the souls that have risen once more.  
  This is the Devil’s pride. This is...  
  “Mentor, are ya...”  
  “I’m fine.”  
  Nothing is wrong. Nothing is lost.  
  Nito, beautiful Nito that once solely belonged to me, could there ever be a world to us alone? He, who smells of roses, messily, tainted roses that long only to prove their worth to the world. My Nito, who need not even try to shine radiantly as the morning star, could it be that even he could not see the sincerity of my art?  
  This is not real. This is not happening.  
  Seeing Nito shine on a stage of petty amateurs, pitiful and half-baked, causes nothing but pangs deep in the heart of my chest, like wild flowers thorns entangling my insides. Something is preying upon my soul, entering the world I can no longer grasp at all. This should be divine as the blessings of God yet all I taste is vile, and bitter. It’s indistinguishable from a kiss of Lucifer, stealing all that I’ve ever wanted, ever needed, all these humanly desires and then so becoming one with I.  
  I exit from the crowd, the kinds neither I nor my failed experiment can stand to be suffocated by. I can feel the hollowness of Nito’s gaze following me out the door, with the honesty of a life free of all suffering, despite all his knowledge. Despite biting into the apple I held so dearly away from him, there is still more that man must never know.  
  And what Nito doesn’t know won’t hurt him.  
  
  It’s not really a rare sight, seeing the lazy insignificant waste away their afternoons on the ground. This boy’s just like a cat in a garden, a truly peculiar presence after all. Shuu tousles the boy’s hair a bit, getting a good look at his face, before...  
  “Nnagh... Ah...?”  
  It’s divine temptation. The boy opens a single eye, some odd golden glow, like the apple glued to his palm, it’s truly striking to his own. In fact, it’s more like a beautiful contrast to Shuu’s eyes, like the light that overpowers darkness in every respect. The air grows awkward in his stare, even he can tell. His silent, strange stare... Shuu wonders if he’s intimidating the boy in his scowl, but what can he say? The boy finds himself squirming as he really starts waking up to the devil before him.  
  “P... Please stop starin’, wouldja?” He looks like he might start crying, sweating like a pig, that anxiety is killing him with just four words. He covers his face.  
  Dragon’s are relentless in the hunt. Shuu forcefully pulls the boys hands away, holding them down, willing him to look Shuu in the eyes. And maybe entirely by mistake, the boy opens his left eye under pressure.  
  _Ah, what a failure, indeed._  
  “Did you put one eye in the wrong socket, I wonder?”  
  They truly do appear completely unnatural. First of all, blue and gold eyes are far, far from what one expects of a boy with such dark, black hair. No, Nito is the same as well, isn’t he? Beautiful, perfect red eyes... Even elegant as they are, they’re completely unheard of, are they not? Did this child steal his eyes from the Garden of Eden itself? The eyes of the devil shine clearly reflected of water in his left, holy and pure he feels himself burning up. Just a touch. He grabs the boys face gently.  
  This isn’t bad, he thinks. On the contrary, he is a gift from God, Himself.  
  “Awww, ya noticed, didn’t ya? I-I didn’t, I...!”  
  “Quiet.”  
  The boy shuts his mouth immediately, straightening his back like he’d heard a ruler slam down against his desk.  
  “You’re the one drawing attention to yourself, Boy.”  
  “H... Huh? But you’re the weird one here? Ain’t ya got some manners? Grabbin’ someone who’s sleepin’ an’ all, what’s that about?”  
  Shuu smiles without realizing. _Yes... Yes, there’s something salvageable here, after all._ Lifting himself from the lowly human’s ground, the man reaches a charitable hand to this strange, mistake child, speaking unto him with great pride.  
  “Do you wish to free yourself of these chains holding you back? That is, won’t you allow me to transform you into a true work of art, greater than even that of God?”  
  For just a moment, the boy remains still, completely dumbfounded by the man before him. This guy can’t be serious, can he? No, there’s no way, that this boy could be any more than a failed experiment of the Lord. And then, he laughs. He laughs so hard, if he were standing he would have fallen right back over into the garden’s soft grass. This couldn’t possibly be real, he must still be dreaming.  
  “You’re a weird one, ain’t ya? But I like that! I thought you’d be scary, but you’re a kind fella, ain’t ya?”  
  He smiles, and Shuu feels he could get used to such a bright, beatific light. The burn doesn’t sting quite so much, with this child.  
  “But, uhh... Whaddya mean by art, anyway?”  
  Ah, yes, there would be much work to be done, here.  
  
  I stare at the doll encased in glass but one last time.  
  My doll is gone. My beautiful Nito, and Kagehira; this one, as well, has long outstayed it’s welcome.  
  My dolls have grown beautiful, with hearts and minds of their own. It’s a horrid thought, that I the Sovereign of this dying world couldn’t even hold onto a single thing that gave me the slightest hints of joy.  
  Nito is gone. He is happy, he is loved, he is _gone_.  
  This unbearable thought keeping me awake long into the night, that Kagehira sleeping warmly at my side with content little purrs when I let my hand pet his empty head. These times will soon fade into memory, Nito is gone, and I, too, am leaving my dues...  
  My child. This child of God I’ve kidnapped, the single entity that should have brought my demise, my death, and yet it is I who am leaving he alone. I trust in time, he truly will have grown the strength to destroy me, to bring about the God sent revelation that dastard’s longed so greatly to see.  
  Is it that God hated us, Valkyrie, from the beginning? What is it that dying Angel has fought so greatly to see? I simply can’t wrap my mind around the foolishness of the Divine. No matter how hard I try, logic wins out in my mind where love devours his.  
  Kagehira, my beautiful Kagehira whom I must leave behind in this world, worried though I am I have great faith that you will bring a great glory to Valkyrie’s name that I never could. You are my last hope in this disgusting human world.  
  To you, who will bring about a great revolution, who I put my utmost faith and blessings into, promise to me that you will become your own person when I am gone. That you will not be my beautiful Nito nor Mademoiselle but my beautiful, beautiful Kagehira Mika, my only blessing from that cursed Savior above.  
  I stare at that doll encased in glass but a single, last time.  
  Tomorrow will be the end of our time together, the end of my need for such foolish means of expression. The very day God’s only true failure find his voice in the world he tends to. Yes, tomorrow, I will no longer be a student, nor idol, but the very definition of art itself.  
  This is the final curtain call.  
  
  Tenshouin Eichi had fallen.  
  Shuu hadn’t quite been there to see it, without ever waking the moment passed him by. This evil lord, this ephemeral being that had no place in swallowing him whole, had already been locked away before he ever had a chance to pull his sword.  
  He is angry. He is betrayed. And, in due time, his time will be no more. Shuu feels peace and emptiness at the revelation before him, that he who’s struck him in his heart has been struck two fold back.  
  What more is there to live for if life itself is short?  
  What’s the devil to do without a God in Heaven, so he does ask? And that child, as well, who follows him like a dog, what’s an owner to do without the motivation to walk?  
  Such is the swirling misunderstandings of Shuu’s empty mind.  
  
  There was a paradise, once, he thought.  
  His two little angels tugging gently at his sleeves, goading him to follow along their simpleton games, so silly and puerile. Why did he follow along? Ah, they’re going to rip the hem of his sleeves if he didn’t, that’s right.  
  Their voices ring celestial, he can’t help but be entranced. Rather, dancing with them, smiling with them, really, truly laughing alongside them; They are divine where he lacks all virtue. They are the lullaby a woman sings, and he so dearly longs to sleep, eternally to that tune.  
  
  Maybe it’s true, he’s been sleeping this whole time. If he were being frank, he’d rather not spoil this dream by awaking early. But, though it pains him to admit, it were never the place he belonged, and neither where his dearest angels should fall at his side.  
  “Nito,” The Dragon whispers, “My beautiful Nito, even if the Earth were crumbling beneath our feet, you would stay at my side, would you not?”  
  Shuu doesn’t believe in destiny, nor fate, nor any kind of Godly intervening when God so hates the Devil alone, and yet he reaches for his dolls hand when his hands have no where else to go. Nito’s hands are so cold, so lacking in life, in a soul, and that is what makes them so safe to hold.  
  “Okay.”  
  There is no such thing as Paradise, but his words are all the same.  
   
   
  It’s all my fault.  
  Every little mistake, every loss, every failure hanging over my head. It’s all my fault. It seems the world is mocking me, turning so slowly, with each new misstep. How is it, even someone as faithful as I have become so blind? Are the lowly scum of this Earth truly moving on without me, passing even an artist such as I by with little remorse?  
  “Mentor...”  
  His voice is so faint. How such a foolish child has grown so attached to me like I were his own mother, I can not say for certain, but...  
  “Mentor... Mentor, you big idiot!”  
  I can’t stand the sight of tears when they fall from his eyes. They never have any grace, anymore than he himself has. Perhaps I’ve grown soft in my years. When I can’t even hold onto the things which matter the most to me. I pat his head, my fingers entangled in that messy, unkempt hair of his.  
  “You’ve done well, Mika.”  
  With snot dripping out his little nose and tears endlessly leaking out his eyes, he soon takes refuge in my shoulder where he houses his sobs. That’s right, isn’t it? After today, this will no longer be his “home,” will it? I will no longer...  
  “You’ve done well. That’s why you mustn’t look back from this day forth, not even once.  Bloom this flower of talent within you into a beautiful flower.”  
  Show me, Kagehira Mika. Show me the person you will become on the stage, tonight. As elegant as you’ve become with me, I am certain you can do so much better, like our dear Nito has grow to be. There is no doubt in me as I leave that your endless array of untapped potential shall flourish like a garden at heaven’s gate.  
  “Show it to me, Mika. Tonight, and when we meet again. Show me how far you can go.”  
  “Mentor,” He muffles, staining my shirt, still so humble as to forget my very name. “Mentor, you idiot.”  
  Of course, it would be I who was the fool this whole time. I am only human, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave a comment its always welcome


	2. Memoirs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn... 222 words exactly. This is what I meant by “Vaguely dod3 inspired,” btw, but none of you would know that. Also why Mika is a baby dragon in my head wwww   
> Mika -> Mikhail   
> I’m pretty certain this is more than factually true after replaying DOD3. By the way, you wouldn't know this either (probably), but the title is a Nier reference, too. Actually, it's one of my fave quotes! Anyway, this is the real end of this fic... A (very) short afterstory letter to Shuu. Please enjoy!

  I’m lonely, Shuu.  
  Real lonely. But, ya know, not too lonely. I bet ya must be pretty happy, huh? Since you don’t gotta yell at me so much no more.  
  Well, I’m doin’ real good, too! Real good! Well, I’m sure you’d let me have it for my eatin’ habits an’ all, still. I’m still eatin’ mostly candy, after all. I’m sorry, ya must be real worried, huh? Geez, I can’t keep causin’ problems for you even when you’re not here, nnaugh!!  
  But... Everyone’s real happy now, after all. I’m thankful, you know? Real thankful. I wasn’t really payin’ attention, after all. I knew Anzu was a special case, and all, but can ya believe? There’s a ton of nice girls here, ya know? Feels like home, after all. It was really easy to make friends after all, ya know? Without you. Without Valkyrie.  
  I’m happy n’all, but...  
  Empty mornin’s, empty beds, empty dinner tables... I bet even a thousand friends couldn’t make that any less lonely, after all?   
  I’m a failure, after all. But ya know what else, I’m pretty stupid, too? Because I’m this stupid, I haven’t given up, after all. I won’t give up one bit, not ‘till I can really fit into your shoes, Mentor. So we can meet again, someday...  
  Don’t forget ‘bout me till then, alright? 

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment!! as always i appreciate all your support.... I hope you all read the bible after this fic and for the love of God please stop sinning not for Gods sake but for mine i don't understand why we do this to ourselves.....  
> Whatever. I'm sleepy. Leave many comments!!! <3 <3 <3


End file.
